


A Day That Shook the World

by doggosbork



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, September 11 Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-11-05 17:48:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11018454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doggosbork/pseuds/doggosbork
Summary: The Doctor and Jo are still trying to get to Metebelis Three, but the Doctor overshot the coordinates- again. Luckily, they end up on Earth this time. But, it is the future, and they are in Boston, Massachusetts. Jo decides to take a look round because she is curious, as usual. Besides, what could possibly go wrong? (A lot, apparently.) Takes place after "The Carnival of Monsters".





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is the first work I'm publishing to AO3, but this is an older one. I wrote it about four years ago when I was REALLY into Doctor who, especially Old Who. I haven't been watching the show recently (because Moffat really mucked up the new series... a rant for another time), but I wanted to post something old before I wrote newer stuff. I had some new edits I wanted to make too, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to do so. Hope you enjoy!

The TARDIS landed with a gentle thud in front of a giant obelisk-like monument. “Doctor, are you sure you set the coordinates correctly?” Jo asked as she peered out the blue doors.

“Of course I did!” he said from inside. “I’m absolutely sure that I’ve gotten it right this time. After all of that nonsense with that miniscope on Inter Minor, I was more than careful this time.”

Jo stepped out and threw her hands on her hips and muttered, “Well, this isn’t exactly how I had pictured Metebelis Three to look like.”

“Well, of course it’s not what you thought it would look like. You have never been here befo-” The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS himself. Today, he donned a black velvet suit with a cape. “Well. This isn’t Metebelis Three, that’s for sure. It looks like…” The Doctor turned to face the large obelisk in front of them. “Ah! This is the Bunker Hill Monument.”

“Oh. So we’re in Boston, then,” Jo said, starting to relax a bit. She didn’t want a repeat of last time’s terrible dilemma with the Drashigs.

“Well, yes, but it isn’t 1973. We seem to be in the future!” The Doctor looked over at Jo. He knew that look all too well. “Now, Jo, it isn’t good to know too much about the future…”

“Oh, but Doctor, it’s just Boston! I’ve never been to Boston before! Can’t we just take a look around?” Jo gave the Doctor her puppy eyes. “Aren’t you the slightest bit curious?” The Doctor thought that this was starting to sound a bit too much like last time for his liking.

“Jo, get in the TARDIS. Now. We’re going to Metebelis Three.”

“I want to take a look around!” Jo argued. The Doctor could see that she wasn’t going to give up without a fight. Plus, he wasn’t going to admit that he was just a little bit curious about what time they had landed in.

“Well…” he paused, thinking about his final decision. “Alright. I just want to find out what time period this is, and then we’ll leave.” Jo grinned from ear to ear and started pulling the Doctor in one direction. “Wait! Do you even know where you’re going?” The Doctor was actually about to head in the opposite direction until Jo had pulled him the other way.

“Yeah,” she replied, “I wanted to check out that airport over there.” She stopped and pointed to it. It didn’t look too far away.

“Why, exactly, did you want to see the airport?” the Doctor said with a slightly confused expression on his face.

“Well, I wanted to see what a future airport was like,” Jo replied. “They must have made some impressive advances in technology, right?” The Doctor sighed. All he wanted to do was find out how far off he had set the coordinates and get out of there, but he still wanted Jo to at least somewhat enjoy it.

“They probably have,” the Doctor said, finally giving in. “I guess we could go take a look for a second.” He started walking in the direction of the airport while Jo followed closely behind him. It took less that ten minutes to walk to the huge airport. It all looked so alien to Jo, and even the Doctor was slightly amazed by the hulking building before him. Jo could barely contain her excitement and her curiosity. When they arrived, the Doctor pushed open the doors and let her in first. As she slowly walked in, she gasped, trying to take in all of the modern sights and technology around her. The airport was full of people waiting for their flights. There was a large digital board on the far wall that displayed flight numbers, times, etcetera. The Doctor let Jo wander around a bit as he tried to determine the year.   _ “Well, the security is pretty good but not as good as it would become after-” _

“Doctor!” Jo said as she ran up to him, making him lose his train of thought. “Who are those men?” The Doctor stole a glance without staring at them. There were six Arab men huddled together in a group discussing something.

“They’re just some men waiting for their flight. Just because they look like they’re from the Middle East doesn’t mean that they mean any harm,” the Doctor said, raising an eyebrow at Jo.

“Yeah, but look at the way they’re whispering to each other. And I think I just saw one of them pull out a small knife!” Jo said softly and urgently. “Maybe we could just follow them around a little and see which flight they’re on.”

“Now, Jo, that would be called stalking. We can’t just go around stalking random people just because they aren’t from around here. Remember, we aren’t from around here, either. We are at an  _ American _ airport! The Logan Airport in Boston, to be exact.”

“But these aren’t just random people! Doctor-”

“Jo!” the Doctor interrupted, “We’ve already gotten farther from the TARDIS than I would have liked, and I don’t plan on getting any farther away! I just wanted to find today’s date-”

_ “Why _ are you so interested in the stupid  _ date _ ?!” said Jo, who was losing her patience. The Doctor wasn’t going to have much patience left after this argument, either.

“I want to see how far off I was when I set the coordinates!” he shot back at her. At that point, Jo knew that she wouldn’t win this argument. Before the Doctor could say anything else, she did the only thing that she could: she took off in the opposite direction. The Doctor was taken by surprise by this, but he knew that he would have to start chasing her. “Jo, stop!” Suddenly, the six Arab men stood up and headed in the direction of the security check. Jo caught up with them, and slowly started to follow behind. The Doctor seemed to have been lost in the crowd. As the Arabs came up to the security check, Jo hoped that they wouldn’t ask her for her ticket… yet. After they all passed the security check, she planned on pick-pocketing one of the Arabs. As she continued to follow closely behind them, she saw that they were close to their flight. The Arabs stopped to get their tickets out, but, just as Jo knew would happen, one of them couldn’t find his ticket. She had already taken it.

To Jo’s surprise, five of the men boarded the plane while one stayed behind and quickly made his way towards the airport exit. That just didn’t make any sense to her.  _ “I knew that there was something strange about those men,”  _ Jo thought to herself. Now she couldn’t wait to tell the Doctor, “I told you so,” later on. For now, she followed the men onto the plane. She somehow knew that the Doctor would catch up soon. He always did. Jo sat down as far away from the five men as possible and made herself comfortable. There were many other passengers on the plane besides the five men, but the plane wasn’t full. Jo decided to finally take a look at her ticket. She was on Flight 11, and their destination was- Los Angeles, California?! Jo almost got up and left after that, but of course, the Doctor walked in right at that moment.

“Jo!” he almost shouted quite loudly in front of all of the other passengers. “What were you thinking?! I had to buy a ticket and-”

“Doctor,” Jo whispered, “There  _ is  _ something strange about those men! I snatched one of their tickets to get on and the others simply left one of the men behind!”

“Well, I suppose that is a little strange… Wait, you did WHAT?”

Then, a voice came on over the intercom of the plane, saying, “The plane is preparing for take-off. Please fasten your seatbelts.” Jo did fasten her seatbelt, but the Doctor just sat there, stunned. He turned his head slowly towards her to look at her.

“Jo,” he said quietly, “Did you ever think about how we are going to get back to Boston?”

“Well, I assumed that you would buy the tickets for us to get back.”

“It costs a lot more money to get flight tickets in this period of time! I spent almost all of my money just paying for my _ first _ ticket! All the rest of my money is back at the TARDIS!” the Doctor said too loudly as Jo’s eyes grew wide with realization. Then, the plane took off. It was only 7:59 am (in this time period), and Jo and the Doctor were already in a huge heap of trouble.

“What are we going to do?” Jo said, starting to panic. The Doctor had absolutely no idea.

“Well, there’s nothing we  _ can  _ do at the moment. We’ll have to wait until we get to Vegas.”

“Maybe we’ll win some big money at a casino,” Jo muttered sarcastically. The Doctor couldn’t help but smile a little at this. They both knew that it would be a long trip. Jo soon fell asleep, and the Doctor sat there, thinking about the terrible demise that he had gotten them into this time. Sure, Jo was the one who ran onto the plane and stole a ticket from an Arab, but it was him who had given into taking her to the airport in the first place. He couldn’t help feeling a little guilty. Then, the Doctor started to slowly doze off, too. As he was falling asleep, he realized that Flight 11 sounded a little familiar. Maybe he had been on another Flight 11 before.

Suddenly, the Doctor woke up as he heard the sound of people screaming. His eyes bolted open only to find a sharp box cutter pointed at his own chest. The Doctor slowly stood up and saw that the man was one of the five Arabs. He looked to his left and saw Jo standing up with another knife at her throat. Most of the other passengers were being held back in the corner by two of the other men. The Doctor knew that it was a good thing that he could speak Arabic.

_ “What is this?”  _  He demanded with a perfect accent and everything. Jo looked surprised, and so did the Arab, even.

_“This plane is ours, now. Empty out your pockets,”_ he said forcefully.

“Empty out your pockets, Jo,” the Doctor told her in English.

They did as they were told, but before the Arab threw their things across the aisle and onto the other seat, the Doctor asked,  _ “Before you take that, could you hold up one of the tickets for me to read for a second? I swear to Allah that I won’t try to pull anything.”  _ The Doctor put his hands above his head and nodded in Jo’s direction as if to tell her to do the same. She did, and the Arab reluctantly held up one of the tickets while keeping the knife at the Doctor’s throat. The other Arab took Jo and shoved her into the corner of the plane with the rest of the passengers. The Doctor skipped most of the information on the crumpled up ticket until he found exactly what he had been looking for all along: the date. The Doctor’s eyes slowly grew even wider with fear, if that was even possible while being on an airplane with a terrorist pointing a knife at you. He felt himself start shaking, even; he had a very good reason to…

The date on the ticket read November 9, 2001. The Doctor and Jo were caught up right in the middle of the hijacking of one of the planes that was going to crash into the World Trade Center at any moment.

This was 9/11.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that sure was exciting! Right? Hopefully.  
> There are two more parts to this story, and my plan is to edit and post them over the next two days. Thanks again for reading, and stay tuned for those next two parts (especially if you're still waiting for the Seventh Doctor or Ace)!


	2. Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took a lot more editing than the first one... but anyway, as you might have guessed, things are going to get a lot more serious here. At least Three and Jo finally get a little help from a future Doctor...

“No!” the Doctor shouted as he was thrown into the corner along with the other captive passengers of the plane. He didn’t like being shoved around, and he definitely wasn’t in the mood for games or anything of the sort. But at the moment, the Doctor’s mind was set at one thing and one thing only: getting him and Jo off of that plane. He made his way around the people in the crowded corner to Jo. “We have to get off of this plane,” the Doctor hastily whispered to her. “Right. Now.”

“Well, it doesn’t exactly take a rocket scientist to figure that out!” Jo snapped back. “The real question is, how the hell are we going to get off without being stabbed or dying from a fall of at least a thousand feet in the air?”

The Doctor thought about this. The door to the airplane was on the other side of the plane itself. “Well,” he suggested, “if we find a parachute and manage to distract the Arabs, we could jump off without getting too scraped up.”

“But what about all of these people? I say that we should get rid of whoever is flying the plane, and then steer it to safety!” Jo said with confidence.

“But Jo, I...” The Doctor hesitated, not really wanting to tell her what exactly was going on. “I... I can’t fly a plane.”

Jo shot him a terribly dirty look at hearing this. “Says the man who built a life-size remote control car and can fly a helicopter with his eyes closed! Doctor, I know that you can fly a plane! And even if you couldn’t, since when would that stop you from trying to save people? What are you trying to hide from me?”

Okay, the Doctor was really bad at lying. But that wasn’t really anything new. Even so, he didn’t know what to tell Jo at this point. The only thing that would satisfy her was... the terrible truth. “Jo,” the Doctor began, wanting to make this as short and simple as possible, “This is a fixed point in history. If we change it, time will go out of whack and this universe would most likely collapse upon itself!”

“But, why, Doc? What’s going to happen?”

The Doctor sighed. He really, really didn’t want to tell her, but for time’s sake and to avoid any argument, it seemed as if he had no choice. “This plane. It has obviously been taken over by Muslim terrorists. They plan on crashing this plane into New York City... If we stop this event, almost 3,000 people who should be dead would be alive, which, as I said earlier, would make the universe collapse upon itself.”

Jo blanched. “But, why-”

The Doctor put a hand over her mouth to stop her from asking any more questions that he wasn’t prepared to answer. “I’ve told you enough already. It’s not good for you to know too much about the future, Miss Grant,” the Doctor said sternly. Jo nodded slowly, and the Doctor lowered his hand from her mouth. She was still slightly recovering from the initial shock of the overwhelming situation at hand. "We need to focus on getting out of here. Now, where's my-" The Doctor looked over onto one of the seats of the airplane where the previous contents of his and Jo's pockets were strewn. There, his sonic screwdriver lay towards the top of the large pile (The Doctor's pockets were  dimensionally transcendental, or 'bigger on the inside', like the TARDIS). The pile wasn’t too far away. "Okay, Jo. Here's what we should do…"

After the Doctor told Jo the plan, she nodded as the Doctor immediately put it into action. “ _ Um, excuse me,”  _ the Doctor said in Arabic, “ _ but what exactly are you planning on doing with us and this plane?”  _

_ “And why should I tell you anything?”  _ one of the Muslims answered. 

_ “Well, since it seems as if we are going to die anyway, so how could it hurt?”  _ the Doctor insisted.

_ “How did you figure that out?”  _ the Arab sneered. The Doctor suspected that the man would start to become suspicious if he kept it up.

_ “Well, I mean… you are obviously planning on crashing this plane into something,” _ the Doctor said. He was not at all easing the Arab’s suspicions.

_ “This man is a spy!”  _ the man shouted back, looking at one of the other terrorists.

“ _ What makes you say that?”  _ the other terrorist said. He meandered over to his accomplice and the Doctor, making sure his boxcutter was available.

_ “He knew that we were going to crash the plane!”  _

The Doctor glanced over at the seat where his sonic screwdriver lay. The Arab that walked over had been closest to it, so now Jo had a clear passage to the pile.  _ “What a stroke of luck,”  _ the Doctor thought to himself. He just wished that Jo would hurry up, because if she didn’t, things could get ugly.

_ “Well?!”  _ the first man was shouting in the Doctor’s face. He hadn’t realized that he had been asked a question.  _ “Where do you come from?”  _ He now had one of the box cutters out and under the Doctor’s throat. What was he suppose to tell them to buy Jo some more time?

_ “Well, I...”  _ the Doctor suddenly remembered how terrible at lying he was.  _ “I don’t come from anywhere, and I don’t work for anyone.” _

_ “What’s THAT suppose to mean?”  _ the Arab shouted angrily.  _ “Look, old man, we have no problem slitting your throat right here and now since we’re all going to die anyway. If you want an extra five minutes of your life, then I suggest that you spit out some real answers!” _

_ “Five minutes?!”  _ the Doctor thought, having a mini half-a-second panic attack. He was about to tell them something slightly more realistic, but then, he felt someone hand him something from behind. It was Jo giving him his sonic screwdriver.  _ “Took her long enough!”  _ the Doctor thought one last time before he said, in English,  _ “ _ Sorry boys, but I’ve got a date with destiny! _ ”  _

Jo sighed at the Doctor’s cheesiness, and the men gave him a quick confused look before the Doctor switched on the sonic screwdriver, releasing a terrible screeching sound that made everyone but the Doctor have to cover their ears. The Doctor pulled Jo over to the airplane door and looked under the seats closest to it. Under them was a backpack with a parachute in it. Hopefully. The Doctor didn't have time to check, because the sonic screwdriver would only buy them a little time. He put the pack on and then opened the door to the plane. The Doctor took one last deep breath, grabbed onto Jo, then jumped.

Jo screamed bloody murder as she and the Doctor fell and fell. The Doctor held onto her as best he could, which was quite hard to do. The ground got nearer and nearer, and the Doctor was having trouble opening the parachute without letting go of Jo. Finally he managed to reached up and pull the string. When he did though, instead of a parachute coming out, various other items flew up and into the air… But no parachute. 

“GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!” the Doctor shouted loudly into the wind. It was all over now. He closed his eyes and held onto Jo as tight as he could. " _ Well, that's the end of this body,"  _ the Doctor thought to himself.

As the Doctor prepared himself for his fourth death, he heard a sound that he knew all too well: the TARDIS! But how had it gotten here? At the moment, neither the Doctor or Jo cared. They suddenly smacked against the ground of the TARDIS as materialized around them, saving them from being squashed like a bug on a windshield.

The Doctor ended up flat on his face with Jo underneath him. He got up off of her and looked up to see who was driving his TARDIS. Well, first of all, it wasn't his TARDIS. Or, was it? Then, the Doctor saw who was flying her. 

“Hello, Doctor,” a man said, peering out from behind the console. He was smiling, but it was a forced smile; he was still trying to get the TARDIS to land properly. “Hang on to something or give me a hand here. It's going to be a bit of a bumpy ride!”

The Doctor didn't ask any questions and went over to help the other man steer the TARDIS, which was shaking like an earthquake. He heard another voice came from somewhere else in the room shout to Jo, “Hang onto something!” As if on cue, one of the circuits on the main console shorted out after she said this, and the TARDIS suddenly lurched forwards.

“JUMPING JEHOSAPHAT!” the Doctor shouted as he burned his hand on one of the shorted out wires that he accidentally touched. Suddenly, there was a huge thud, and the shaking finally stopped. Smoke was rising from the console, and the time rotor had stopped completely. At least they had finally landed. 

The other man stood up and brushed off his question mark vest. Neither Jo or the Doctor knew who he was, but one thing was clear about him: he was very short. 

“Well, that could have been more pleasant,” he said nonchalantly. The man moved around the console to examine some of the shorted out wires underneath.

“Who are you,” the Doctor asked, “and what are you doing in my TARDIS?”

“Funny you should ask that,” the man said. “Because, well, you see, I am you.” He got up and walked over to the Doctor. 

“Oh, not this again,” he muttered. “Which one are you, then?”

“I'm your seventh body,” the other Doctor answered. He held out his hand for his other self. “It's very nice to meet me.”

“I wish I could say the same,” the Doctor replied, lousily shaking hands with himself. “You aren’t like my previous self, are you? That little troll was a nasty piece of work.”

“Well, you’ll have time to figure that for yourself… We may be stuck here for a little while,” the Seventh Doctor said, walking back to his console to examine the damage. “I’m going to need time to fix these wires, and I was hoping that you would help me. But, we seem to have run into another little problem...” He opened up a door at the bottom of the console, and pulled out a cubic machine part. “The energy abator is broken. It needs new parts, but I haven’t got any. The TARDIS can’t work without it.” The Doctor set it down on the console.

“What does that thing do, Professor?” Finally, the girl that the Third Doctor had heard earlier had revealed herself. She was a seventeen-year-old girl wearing a rather odd looking jacket that still somehow suited her.

“Well, the time rotor sometimes generates too much energy to hold, and this little box absorbs all of the extra energy. It can be used later if an energy shortage occurs. But, without this, it is likely that the TARDIS will have an energy overload, and it could, well... explode like a nuclear bomb,” the Seventh Doctor said nervously. “And, if I were careless enough to drop the energy abator or let something else happen to it, its energy could escape and cause a mini explosion inside the TARDIS. But, for now, it just can’t _absorb_ the energy. It’s a little complicated, but right now we just need to focus on getting this fixed.”

“Wait a second. Who’s that?” the Third Doctor asked, pointing at the teenage girl.

“Well, I’m Ace! The Professor told me that we had to save another version of himself or something like that, so I’m assuming that that’s you. But, you look so different...” Ace looked over at her Doctor and said to him, “Well, Professor, it looks like you’ve gotten younger. How does that work?” The Third Doctor felt a little insulted at hearing this, but he decided to let it pass.

“I don’t have time to answer questions right now, Ace. I have to figure out how to get us out of here without being burnt to a crisp in a nuclear explosion,” the Seventh Doctor replied.

“Oh, so you’re the Doctor, too!” Jo finally spoke up. “I met your first and second selves before, but you’re new! Seven, huh? Doctor, how many of you  _ are  _ there?”

“I don’t really know, Jo. But, why does Ace keep on calling me ‘Professor’?” the Doctor asked the exhausted Seventh Doctor yet another question. He was starting to get a little overwhelmed.

“It’s just her nickname for me!” the he answered. Jo and the Third Doctor didn’t miss the annoyance in his voice. “Now, Doctor, could you  _ please _ help me?”

“Erm, yes, sorry.” The Third Doctor walked over to help the Seventh Doctor examine the damage to the energy abator. 

Jo walked over to Ace. “So, you travel with the Doctor too?” she asked her.

“Yeah, and you travel with your Doctor, then. He’s....” Ace paused, thinking of the right word to describe the Third Doctor. “Tall,” she said. Jo laughed at hearing this.

“Well, your Doctor is short!” she taunted back. Ace couldn’t help laughing too. The Third Doctor looked like a giant to his predecessor. At this moment, both Jo and Ace knew that they would get along just fine.

The Third Doctor was taking a final look at the energy abator when he realized he had no idea where they all were. “Well,” the Third Doctor said, setting down the contraption, “We should probably start by seeing where we landed.” The Seventh Doctor nodded his head in agreement. 

“Ace, Jo, come on, we're going to have a look outside.” They walked over, already chatting like best friends.

“And then, as my last resort, I had to take my baseball bat and beat it up with  _ that! _ " Ace said, telling Jo about the time she beat a Dalek with a baseball bat. Jo was enjoying the story, and the Doctors smiled, each feeling happy that they got along.

“Alright, then. Come on,” the Seventh Doctor said, pushing open the doors of the TARDIS. The other Doctor, Jo, and Ace followed. “Well, this looks like…” he turned around. “Oh, God. Of all the damned places…”

The others turned around to see where they were, and they quickly realized why the Doctor was worried. They had just happened to land only blocks away from the World Trade Center. The Third Doctor swore under his breath, and Jo gasped, but Ace didn't understand. Then, she saw the plane.

“Professor, why is that- OH MY GOD!” Ace screamed, just as the plane crashed directly into one of the two twin buildings. Jo let out a little squeak and ran straight back into the TARDIS. The Third Doctor had a very grim expression on his face, and the Seventh Doctor looked completely mortified. Ace just stood there and watched. They all could have just stood there for hours recovering from shock, but then they saw a huge dust cloud heading straight towards them. 

The Seventh Doctor let out a shrill shriek and shouted, “Get back in the TARDIS!” He ran back as quickly as he could, pulling Ace behind him. The Third Doctor followed. When they entered, Jo was sitting on the ground, crying. The Third Doctor walked over to comfort her.

“You knew that this would happen, Professor!” Ace said almost angrily to the Doctor. However, she softened when she saw the horribly sad and lamenting expression on his face. She ran over to hug him and cry into his shoulder. 

“Why, Doctor?” Ace asked him between light sobs. He couldn't help noticing that she had finally called him ‘Doctor’.

“I don't know, Ace,” he muttered to her softly. “I just don't know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, it's almost time to wrap this thing all up. Just one more chapter coming in tomorrow... or Tuesday. I know I said I wanted to have it all published for Monday, but I have a lot of places to be. If I don't get to publishing tomorrow, have a good Memorial Day, and please stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion!


	3. Part 3

“Oh, Jo...” the Third Doctor gave her a soft hug and helped her up off of the TARDIS floor. “There’s nothing we could have done to stop it.”

“I know, Doctor. But seeing all of those people die...” Jo let out another sob and buried her face into her hands. The Doctor was about as good at comforting people as he was at lying in these circumstances, so he wasn’t sure what to do with the situation. Luckily, almost as soon as she had started crying, she suddenly stopped and said, “Doctor, take me home.”

The Doctor paused. He was about to say something before, but now his mind froze as he tried to interpret what Jo had just asked him to do. “I mean, I guess we can stop back on Earth before we-”

“No, Doctor,” Jo said firmly. “You know what I meant.”

The Doctor did know what she meant… but he was having trouble accepting the fact that she wanted to stop travelling with him. “But... why?”

“We’ve been trying so hard just to get to Metebelis Three for so long now, and I’m getting tired of all these detours!” Suddenly, his face became gloomy as Jo said, “I would like to just go back to the lab and continue being your assistant who just hands you test tubes day and night for your experiments.” She heaved a big sigh, and that’s when the Doctor finally understood something. Jo didn’t feel important; she thought she was just his expendable lab assistant. The Doctor also realized that perhaps he  _ had  _ been treating her a bit unfairly for the past few months.

“My dear Jo,” the Doctor began, “but you aren’t just my lab assistant, colleague, or even just a scientific partner. You are my best friend, and I just wanted to take you places and give you an opportunity to show you things that very few people have a chance to see. I wanted to make you happy, but now I suppose that I haven’t been very kind to you lately. I’m hardly a good friend at all… I’m so sorry for all this.”

Jo was astonished to hear the Doctor say these things. He hardly ever apologized for anything, and he had never called her his friend before. “Oh, Doctor...” Jo reached up and gave the Doctor a hug. He was a little surprised himself, but it didn’t take long for the Doctor to recover and return the hug. “I really like travelling with you, but... I suppose I could do without all the danger.” The Doctor released the hug.

“Ah, but Jo,” he said, “my  _ middle name  _ is danger!” Jo giggled a little at hearing the Doctor use another silly cliche.

“What is it with you and the cheesy cliches today?” she asked, giggling all the while.

“What do you mean, ‘cheesy cliches’?!” he replied, feeling rather offended. “You know, I thought we were having a bit of a ‘moment’ there. But that just ruined the mood.” Jo laughed a bit louder this time before she and the Third Doctor walked over to where Ace had finished crying on the Doctor’s shoulder. “Now, I think we ought to get right down to business so that we can get out of this dratted place,” the Third Doctor said to everyone.

“I agree,” the Seventh Doctor replied, looking up at him. “Ace, why don’t you show... erm...”

“Jo,” Jo reminded him.

“Yes, sorry. Why don’t you show Jo some of the rooms of the TARDIS while the Doctor and I work on fixing the energy abator?”

“Will do, Professor! Come on, Jo; I wanna show you the  _ explosives lab _ !” Ace said, full of excitement as she led Jo to the hall.

“NOT THE EXPLOSIVES LAB!” the Seventh Doctor frantically shouted back at her. “I banned you from the explosives lab! I don’t need you making any Nitro 9 when we’ve already got a radioactive machine part full of energy straight from the TARDIS’s core sitting in the middle of the console room!”

“But Professor-”

“No buts! Why don’t you show Jo something else? Like, maybe the library, or...” 

Ace looked unamused, but Jo, on the other hand, said, “Alright, that sounds good,” and she grabbed Ace’s hand and pulled her into the hall.

“She’s a handful, isn’t she?” the Third Doctor said. He seemed to be telling the Seventh Doctor instead of actually asking him.

He just snorted. “Well, I’d say she is! Maybe we can trade off when we get back to your TARDIS,” the  Seventh Doctor joked.  The other Doctor laughed, and then they got right back down to business. “Now, the energy abator needs just two parts, and then we can get her working again.”

“What does it need?”

“Well, it just needs a screw and a couple nuts so that we can... oh dear. That’s not good. Not at all...”

“What’s wrong?” the Third Doctor asked, beginning to get a little worried.

“Some of the wires are burnt out. I doubt that I have any spares on my TARDIS.” the Seventh Doctor turned a bit pale as he carefully set down the energy abator.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got spare parts in my- Oh,” the Doctor said, remembering that his TARDIS was back in Boston. “Well this is a bad situation to be in at the moment.”

“Great. Well this is just bloody brilliant,” the Seventh Doctor said, throwing his hands up into the air in defeat. “How are we  _ ever  _ going to get back to Boston?!”

“Well, don’t let your hopes down yet!” the other Doctor said. He could see that this version of himself was a bit short on patience. He was about to start brainstorming for an idea, but then Jo and Ace barged into the room.

“Aw, ace, Professor! Why haven’t you showed me the inside of the library before? It’s amazing!” Ace was carrying _1984_ with her, while Jo had _The Perks of Being a Wallflower_.

“Ace, Jo, not right now, please. We’re in a bit of a fix,” the Third Doctor said, trying not to sound annoyed.

“What’s the matter, Doctor?” Jo asked, starting to look a little worried herself.

“Well-” both of the Doctors started talking at once, “I... You...”

“We need to replace some wires in the machinery that got burned out, but we haven’t got any spares,” the Third Doctor finally said. “The only parts I have are back in our TARDIS in Boston.”

“Well, that may be a  _ bit  _ of a problem,” Ace said sarcastically, “How are we going to get out of here?!”

“What if we just went out and bought some spare parts?” Jo said without really thinking.

“Are you nuts?!” Ace said as she turned to face her.

“Ace...” the Seventh Doctor scolded her. Ace just bowed her head in shame. “Jo, the toxic gas from the plane crash could kill all of us, and I highly doubt that any stores are still open. People are probably just running around frantically for their lives. After all, it’s only a matter of time before the second place hits-”

“THE WHAT?” Ace and Jo shouted simultaneously.

The Third Doctor glared at his shorter self. “Now, what did you go ahead and tell them that for? They didn’t have to know that there was a second plane at all!”

“Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t exactly fancy lying to my companions!” Seven retaliated.  _ (Shut your mouth, Seven. We all know that you’re the manipulative one.) _

“What they don’t know won’t hurt them!” Three shouted, getting closer into the other Doctor’s face, despite the fact that he was still a foot taller than him.

“Why, I oughta-”

“WILL YOU TWO STOP ARGUING!” Jo interrupted. “You’re no better than a couple of five-year-olds! Just figure out how to get us all out of here,  _ please _ !”

The two Doctors just stared at her for a moment. The Third Doctor was about to say something when the Seventh suddenly called out, “Ace?” She had disappeared. “Ace, where have you gone to?”

The Doctors and Jo were about to go search for her, but then they heard someone shouting a name. “Professor! Professor!” It was Ace, and she was running down the hall and into the console room- well, rather, she ran straight into the Third Doctor.

“Ace! Be careful where you’re going!” Seven scolded her.

“But Doctor, look what I’ve got!” Ace held an orange toolbox. “There are spare parts inside, including wires!

“Where on Gallifrey did you find that?!” the Third Doctor asked, quite surprised. “That looks exactly like my toolbox that I keep in my lab back at U.N.I.T.”

The Seventh Doctor walked up to Ace and took the toolbox. He opened it, and, sure enough, there were spare bolts, nuts, screws, and wires. “I thought I had lost this old thing thing ages ago, when I-” he stopped and caught himself, not wanting to tell his past self too much about his own future. “When I was organizing the TARDIS,” he lied. The Doctor never organized anything in the TARDIS. Luckily, the Third Doctor didn’t notice that he was lying, because his future self was much better at lying than he was. Maybe, perhaps, he was a little  _ too  _ good at lying. “So, how did you even find this then, Ace?” he asked her, switching topics.

“A while back, I stumbled upon an old storage room. There were a bunch of boxes in there labeled ‘U.N.I.T’ _ ,  _ and I was curious as to what U.N.I.T. was. I opened one of the boxes, and I found this toolbox. I thought it had a bunch of nifty things in there, you know, for making Nitro-9 or other things, so I kept it in my room in the TARDIS. I was going to use it, until you banned me from the explosives lab.”

The Third Doctor wondered why the Seventh had boxes in storage labeled ‘U.N.I.T.’, until it dawned on him. He was either going to leave U.N.I.T eventually, or something bad was going to happen to it. He felt a little sad to know that he would be leaving his friends there, but the Doctor never tried to ponder his future too much; what happens happens, and he knew that he  was likely to just stress about the future if he thought about it. Besides, he needed to start fixing the TARDIS so that he could take Jo home and continue his search for Metebelis Three.

“Well, never mind how Ace found it,” Jo interrupted the Doctor’s train of thought, “we need to fix the energy abator and get back to Boston.”

“She’s right,” Seven said to his predecessor. “You’re the one who’s good at fixing and inventing things, so I’m going to need a lot of your help.” 

The Third Doctor nodded, and then the two Doctors got busy fixing the TARDIS. Fixing the energy abator was a long and tedious task, so Ace and Jo ran off into the hall where they wouldn’t disturb them. Not only was fixing the machine part long and hard work, but it was also very boring. The Doctors had to move slowly but surely, making sure to handle everything with care even though all they were doing was switching out a couple wires. The Seventh Doctor thought this was terribly grueling work, but the Third Doctor was quite use to this kind of thing since he worked in his lab at U.N.I.T most of the day while he was still in exile. But eventually, the energy abator was fixed, and the TARDIS was up and running again.

“Is the TARDIS fixed, Doctor?” Jo asked as she and Ace walked back into the room. She had startled both of the Doctors, and the Seventh to hit his head while getting out from under the console. The two unlikely friends had already finished the books from the library. Ace had never much liked books, but she had liked  _ 1984 _ and was considering reading some more during some downtime in the TARDIS. That is, if she ever actually  _ got  _ any downtime later on. It was unusual for there to be so much extra time while travelling with the Doctor, but it was kind of nice to take a break every once and awhile.

“I just finished putting the energy abator back in the TARDIS,” the Seventh Doctor replied.

“And I just fixed these burnt out wires on the console,” Three added. “We’re about to take off, so you two should hang on to something. This ride may be a bit bumpy.”

“I’ll set the coordinates,” Seven said as Jo and Ace each looked for something to grab onto. Unfortunately, there really wasn’t anything besides the grandfather clock on one wall, so Jo just curled up in the corner of the room while Ace grabbed onto the clock to stop herself from falling over on the bumpy flight.

“Remember, Doctor, we are travelling in  _ space _ , not  _ time, _ ” Three reminded the other Doctor.

“Got it,”  he answered, a little annoyed that Three had felt the need to remind him. “She’s ready to fly!”

“Alright,” the Third Doctor said, taking his position near the console, “then let’s hit it!” Jo shook her head again at hearing the Doctor say another cheesy line, but her breath left her as soon as the Doctors started steering the TARDIS towards Boston. They had been right; the ride was bumpy, and the Doctor’s hat rack almost fell on Jo. The ride was unexpectedly long, too, since the TARDIS was not in top condition. After five minutes of having things fall everywhere and the two Doctors yelling at each other about everything that the other was doing wrong, the TARDIS landed with one last large thud. Ace finally fell over, and Jo felt like she was going to be sick.

“That could have gone better,” the Third Doctor said. The Seventh Doctor was panting from running around to steer the TARDIS, while the other Doctor was just relieved to have not been killed in the strenuous flight.

“Are we in Boston, then?” Jo asked the Doctor.

“Well, I suppose there’s only one way to find out,” the Seventh Doctor replied, gesturing towards the door. Jo and Ace were the first to walk outside as the Doctors followed.

“We made it!”  Jo shouted with joy as she saw the Bunker Hill Monument and her Doctor’s TARDIS close by. She wanted nothing more than to just run up to her TARDIS and go inside, but she wanted to say goodbye to the other Doctor and Ace first. She had come to like Ace, and it would be sad to see her go. “Well, thank you Doctor,” she said to Seven. He held out his hand for a handshake, but Jo reached past to give him a hug instead. Then, she ran over to Ace, and the two shared a long embrace. “Well, goodbye, Ace.”

“Bye, Jo. I’ll miss you,” Ace said, feeling quite gloomy about not being able to see her friend again. “Thank you for teaching me about books and telling me all those stories. I’ll never be able to forget them, even if I tried.”

Jo smiled. She was happy to have given Ace something to remember her by, but it was time to go, and the Doctor was calling her already. “Goodbye, Ace,” she said one last time as she went over to her Doctor. He was already by his TARDIS, and Jo even thought she saw him stroking it once and twice, although she prefered to think of it as just being her imagination. She stepped inside, glad to be back. The 9/11 tragedy had made her very homesick; in fact, she was quite happy to think of the TARDIS as her home away from home. It had always been a home for the Doctor as well, and he had of course been worried as to whether he would be coming back or not.

“Metebelis Three?” the Doctor said as to ask Jo if she was ready to take off and travel with him again.

“... To Metebelis three!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's all, folks! Editing this story has really shown me how far I've come since I wrote this four years ago (writing-wise), and I can't wait to make some new content for my next work. It probably won't be Doctor Who, but hopefully it could be another fandom you're interested in.  
> Thank you to those of you who read this all the way through!


End file.
